Correcting a Strength Imbalance – Q&A

Question: Just wondering what are some good ways to correct imbalances? I had a hard labor job when I was in my early 20’s and not thinking about it at the time did everything with my dominant side, and have never seemed to be able to fix it. I’m not even sure where to start. Any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks.

Answer: Imbalances across the body (e.g. left vs. right leg or right vs. left arm or what have you) are fairly common and can be caused by a number of things. You mention one, many jobs involve moving in a repetitive fashion in one direction only. For example, grocery store checkers typically rotate one direction (from the register to the belt) repeatedly with no shift. Many labor jobs are similar with the same asymmetrical pattern being repeated for hours, days, weeks, months or years on end.

In many sports, the same is seen. Runners who always run the same direction around the track can end up with issues as one side of their body is stressed differently than the other; rowers often get imbalances as a function of one oar moving differently than the other. Imbalances (and back problems because of them) are absolutely endemic to my former sport, ice speed skating. I think you get the idea.

Injuries can cause this to occur as well; when one side of the body is injured for example, the body often adapts by inhibiting a certain muscle (or finding a substitution of a different muscle) and over time this leads to imbalances. Making this more difficult is that once an imbalance occurs, the body often finds ways to use other muscles to do a movement to avoid the weakness. You also often see adaptations in muscle length with the weaker side becoming somewhat loose and the strong muscle becoming tight. This isn’t universal but at this point we’re getting into physical therapy.

So what do you do about it? I’m going to assume you know where the imbalance is. It might be between your right and left arm (most people tend to be a bit stronger on their dominant arm side since they tend to favor it already) or a right and left leg. That could mean quads, glutes, hamstrings when I say ‘leg’. For someone who does a lot of rotation, you might see a bunch of different issues including imbalances between arms and even rotationally (i.e. the obliques on one side might be significantly stronger than the other).

The first thing I’d generally recommend is some type of strength testing to determine the level of the imbalance; this will also let you see if you’re making progress towards fixing it. This also lets me address exercise selection. For the most part, for both testing and fixing imbalances I strongly suggest using isolation exercises.

While this will offend those who feel that compound movements rool and isolation movements drool, my reasoning is this: when there is an imbalance, the body is often fascinatingly creative at finding substitutions to make the movement happen while throwing the least stress onto the weak muscle.

So consider the case where someone has a right quadricep weaker than the left. If you use a quad dominant split squat or step-up, the body will try to find other muscles to help out, avoiding the problem. Case in point, years ago I had a trainee who had sustained a hip/SI injury. When I had her do step ups, she’d get sore in her quads on one side and glutes on the other. The movement looked identical but her body had found ways around the injury and was using different muscles.

In contrast, if I want to fix a quad problem and I use one-legged leg extensions, the body is going to use the quads no matter what. The same would hold for fixing imbalances between arms (use a one arm curl or triceps pushdown), pecs (use pec deck one arm at a time or a one-armed cable crossover). If someone had a rotational imbalance in the obliques, this would be a good use for the ‘ab-rotation’ machines that so many waste their time on trying to whittle their love handles.

In any case, the first issue is testing. Since we want to test strength, we ideally want a weight that will cause failure somewhere between 6-10 repetitions. Fewer than that can be a problem for isolation movements; more and you start getting into issues of muscular endurance. After a proper warm up you want to test one side vs the other to compare the two; make sure to keep form and lifting speed the same.

So say you’re doing one-legged leg extensions with 100 lbs and get 10 reps with the strong side and only 6 with the weak side. Now you know your baseline. Every month or so you’re going to retest to make sure that the weak side is catching up with the strong side.

Now we fix it and there are two ‘rules’ I apply here. The first is this: you will always start with the weak side and always let the strength of the weak side determine what you do with the strong side. So if you do your first set with the weak leg and get 8 repetitions with 80 lbs on the 1-legged leg extension, you will stop at 8 reps with 80 lbs on the strong leg.

Even if the strong leg could easily do more (and it probably can). If you don’t do this, you will simply keep making the strong side stronger and the weak side will never catch up. And yes, if you’re worried, this may weaken the strong side a bit. That’s fine, what we’re trying to do here is achieve balance so that body sides can be strengthened again.

The other rule would be to do more sets (perhaps twice as many sets) for the weak side than the strong-side. As I’ve discussed elsewhere on the site, you can maintain strength in a muscle group with a volume reduction of up to 2-3’rds so you can cut the volume on the strong side down to 1-2 sets and not lose much strength. At the same time you’d want to do 3-4 sets for the weaker side to stimulate strength gains so that it will catch up. So you could do 1 set for the strong side and 2-3 for the weak side or 2 for the strong side and 4 for the weak side.

So in practice, again using quads as an example, you’re looking at a situation where you might do a workout consisting of

Warm-ups as described in Warming Up for the Weight Room
First set with weak side: say you get 80 lbs by 8 reps on the 1-legged leg extension.
Do your first set with the strong side. Even if you can do more, stop at 80lbX8reps.
Second set with the weak leg. If you can do the same 80 lbs by 8 reps, that’s fine.
If you need to drop weight, do that.
Second and final set with the strong side. Match it to the second set with the weak leg.
Third and even a fourth set for the weak leg

Take about a minute between opposite legs and perhaps 1.5-2 minutes on the final two sets (since you’re working the same leg). You’d do the above twice per week and, of course, apply progressive overload as things got stronger. IF the weak leg improves to 90lbsX8 reps, bump up the strong side to match it. And again, retest every month or so. Once you’re within 1-2 reps difference between sides (nobody is ever perfectly symmetrical) you can move back to more compound movements.

As a final comment, one thing I’ve noticed and perhaps any rehab oriented readers can chime in in the comments is this: once people have had an imbalance the body often shifts back towards it even if you seem to have fixed it. It’s probably due to well established neural pathways but there may be good reason to throw in some one-legged work in from time to time (e.g. finish quads with one-legged leg extensions after squats or leg press) to both ensure that the sides stay symmetrical as well as doing a spot-test from time to time. Otherwise the same imbalances seem to come back gradually over time. And it’s always easier to prevent a problem than fix it.

I’d also note that imbalance can also be caused by reasons totally unrelated to anything that the above can fix. Nerve pinches or other things that only a competent physio can address are potential causes here. If you apply the above and nothing is happening, it’s worth getting checked out by someone to see if there is a bigger issue at work.

I am a right hip disarticulate. My friend forwarded me a link to this article when I asked him his thoughts on how I could fix what I essentially see as a major strength imbalance in my core, abs, etc, which I view as a function of having my right leg amputated at the hip.

I was fairly overweight from 2 years after the amputation (during which I was on chemotherapy), until just recently — 15-17 years total there. Last July, I began a focused effort to get into shape, lose weight, build muscle. I’ve been working out regularly since then, eating healthily and seeing results. In the past year, I’ve gone from 195 pounds to 137 pounds. I still have a fair amount of belly fat though.

When I do sit ups, or work my abs via L-sit or stretching, it “feels” as if my right side is “left behind” in a sense. I attribute this in my mind to a lack of counterweight on my right side.

What do you suggest I do to get an even work out? Your article is helpful, but doesn’t address the unique situation where the weak side is weak, in part, because of the absence of a limb to exercise.

Jared: This is so far outside of my scope of expertise that I am not in any position to comment on it. My apologies.

Danne on
March 8th, 2011 6:43 am

Interesting article. When I’m doing the legpress I fell more pump in my right leg. It feels like it have worked more than the left one. And my right leg is bigger than the left. Anyway, I can’t see any big differens in strength.

Anyway, I think those imbalances occur because of different length in arms and legs (Your body isn’t symmetric, which means different movements in right side vs left side). I.e longer right arm than left arm etc. If yo’re doing a barbell movement, one side will have a greater ROM and since you probably also will get a askew lift, there’s bigger risk you’ll injure yourself. So a one leg/arm exersice would probably not help if you have different arm or/and leg length cause of the better ROM in the longer leg/arm.

“once people have had an imbalance the body often shifts back towards it even if you seem to have fixed it.” If you mean when they are starting with the barbell/legpres movement with both legs and arms again I think it’s because of the different length side again, cause of one side will have a greater ROM and you will build up different strength again like you did before.

PS. The length different can also occur because of pelvis rotation of course. Maybe it also because one side being more stiff than the other, which make different ROM.

This is just some thoughts I had on my own and I’m not sure if this is correct. What do you think about this Lyle, do you think that could be another reason?

Thanks for this article!

Best regards

Lucas on
May 6th, 2011 3:24 pm

Lyle,

I have been a serious athlete for over 7 years now. I started cycling when I was 12 years old and trained around 50 weeks out of the year for 6 years until I quit and started rock climbing. When I was a cyclist I had a noticeably weaker left leg which caused back and hip pain. A physical therapist diagnosed me with a collapsing arch in my left foot which was causing the difference in motion between the two legs. Expensive orthotics failed to fully solve the problem. After I stopped cycling I took up rock climbing and started to train seriously. I quickly noticed a discrepancy between my right and left arm. My right arm is significantly larger than the left and much more powerful. When observing them in a mirror my right looks slightly longer, could this possibly be an illusion? My question is, is it possible the entire left side of my body is weaker than the right (the left side of my face is slightly angled downwards and my eye is smaller Also my left hand is slightly, almost imperceptibly, smaller) and as a result I not only favor my right side but am unable to fully develop on the left?

Thanks for taking the time to read this lengthy question!

Lucas

Rainbow on
September 22nd, 2013 2:54 pm

I have an imbalance by always driving an automatic car I found the above information extremely helpful thank you

Randy on
January 3rd, 2014 10:18 pm

Lucas

I had a disparity between my left quad and glute compared to my right. I spent 3 years rowing on the one side. Later when I changed to rugby I quickly discovered that my right upper body was significantly weaker than my left side. It wasn’t until I met with my osteopath that I discovered I had a transverse sling. Do some research on this, but basically my understanding of transverse sling is that it’s your deep core that goes from your lower pelvis (hip flexors) and goes up to your opposite latissimus Dorsi. This explained my weak left leg and weak right upper body. There are many exercises that can help you increase your transverse slings strength. Pilates is also recommended.

I currently have osteo-pubis due to my imbalance and I am still struggling to make my return to rugby.

I to have problems with my left side. I have been doing stationary cycling for about 5 years. 3 or more times a week. over the years I’ve developed pain in my neck, shoulders hip, knee, ankle and big toe, all on my left side, not to mention I’ve developed bunions on both feet. My left side is obviously noticeably being carried by my right side when riding. I can feel a tightness in my left glute and an inward twisting motion in my left hip when consciously trying to correct the imbalance ride. any suggestions of why this is so.

Rae on
September 17th, 2014 10:12 am

Hi Lyle,
I found your article very interesting and helpful! For a few years now I have noticed that my left leg is significantly weaker and slightly larger than my right leg. I have actually spoken about the issue with a few personal trainers before but they all seem to laugh the situation off because nobody really knows how to help me. Ii used to go jogging every day and about a year into it I noticed that all of my right leg was breaking the weight. It’s been about 5 years now and It is getting to a point where my posture is getting affected. When I walk my body will lean to the right over my right leg and bear all of my weight! I’m really getting bothered about it now. I’m wandering if you’d be able to give me any advice on how I’d go about fixing this issue. I love bike riding now but it’s the same story! Hopefully you can get back to me with a suggestion? Thank you, Rae 🙂

Im a 49 yr male contractor 5’10” who use to weigh in at 256lbs.was in good shape but carried lot extra fat evenly distributed over my body.decided to shed some weight at trim down.in get back into shap. Built a great weight room at started a program.in 7-months I shed 56lbs of dead weight an feel a look great .my chest,arms stomach,shoulder are getting some definition! How ever…from swinging a 28oz hammer nearly 30rys my right shoulder an arm are bigger then my left side shoulder an arm side.wasn’t really noticeable with all the extra weight I use to carry? Now being trim an in shape. I have a differenc in size to correct !! An I really don’t no how to go about it the right way to complete this task !! kinda lost is there anyone who can direct me in the right path..would be greatly appreciated !

After cyclop lesion removal this year on my ACL reconstructed knee(2005), my graft is destroyed and I’m pretty much acl deficient in my right knee. Do you still recommend leg extension for strengthening quad on that knee? Right now I’m doing one-leg leg press and I do see some progress, but I have a feeling hip is doing much of a work and my leg(quad) is pretty shaky from 0 do 30/40 degrees of flexion.

[WORDPRESS HASHCASH] The poster sent us ‘1433835500 which is not a hashcash value.

Read your article, great input. I’ll keep this short and simple, maybe you could inform on this problem. I am a rower at Austin rowing club, and I have been rowing for about 10 years now. I am currently training at the national team level.

I began weight training heavily this fall, and I started feeling a muscular imbalance developing between my left and right leg, left weaker than right. In october I pulled my left hamstring, I believe, as a result of the imbalance, which I treated with myofascial release therapy.

I don’t know your functional knowledge of rowing, so I will try to not use specialized terminology, but for the last few months, when I workout on the rowing machine, I feel as if my left leg, hip flexor, and glute is much tighter than the right, and it makes me feel almost crooked on the recovery (the part when you roll up) and the drive (the part when you pull), almost as if my left leg is a few inches longer, however I know that is not the case.

I am hesitant to strengthen the left leg, in fear that it will get tighter, and stretching doesn’t seem to be getting me anywhere. Do you have any recommendations for people I could talk to about how to remedy this strength/flexibility imbalance?

Thanks, Taylor

Abhimanyu on
January 9th, 2016 10:29 am

Hi Lyle sir,
I’m a big follower of urs and take u as my mentor after my first mentor Kaizzad Capadia. I’m from India and I’m a certified fitness professional. We have a lot of similarities. One of it is me being an animal lover and work for animal welfare.
I read your blogs religiously and very fortunate to have found a gem and a true fitness professional like u in the fitness industry full of Hoax n frauds.
Lyle sir i’d like to answer, Petar’s question of whether leg extensions can be performed in cases such as Acl tear or no Acl.
I have a client with same issues and I’d like to give my 2 cents.
For the above I’d say it depends, by slowly and gradually strengthening the leg wid unilateral exercise, I was safely able to perform leg extensions. Not just bilateral extensions but unilateral leg extensions. The client feels a lot stronger and stable on the affected leg. Thank u for hearing me out ☺.
Keep up the great work sir for fitness industry and animals.
Take care